main

Recycle Materials to Reduce Industrial Emissions

«— Click topics at left

The volume of "convenience" disposable products and needless elaborate packaging of metal, paper, glass, and plastic never ceases to grow year after year. Large amounts of energy are needed to make this packaging from raw materials. Of course, this energy use in turn releases corresponding large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. You can dramatically improve this situation by following the 3 R's: Reduce packaging by buying products that use minimal packaging; Reuse products, by buying reusable products instead of throw-away ones; and Recycle packaging and paper by collecting them and bringing them to your nearest recycling center.

K EY STATISTIC

"Recycling paper, glass, and metal saves from 70 to 90 percent of the gas emissions needed to manufacture these products from raw materials."

The most critical actions for paper

1… Recycle all paper items.

Stack it high. Collect all newspapers, magazines, paper packaging, envelopes, and sheet paper and take them to your local recycling center.

2… Print on both sides of printer paper.

Get both sides of the story. When printing on sheet paper, print on both sides. (Tip: Most desktop printers do not automatically print on both sides of the paper, but you can do this manually by first selecting 'Print Odd Pages' in the printer or word processing dialog box and then reloading the pages with the blank side in the print position and selecting 'Print Even Pages' from the dialog box.)

3… Buy recycled-paper products.

Buy it used. Buy recycled paper products whenever you can.

The most critical actions for glass

1… Buy food products in glass containers instead of plastic.

Have the real thing. Buy bottled products in glass instead of plastic and then afterwards take the empty glass containers to your nearest recycling center.

The most critical actions for metal

1… Recycle metal cans and containers.

Don't toss them. Save metal cans and containers and take them to your nearest recycling center.

2… Separate metal parts for recycling.

Take it apart. Disassemble metal parts from products that you are discarding and later recycle the metal at your nearest recycling center.

[ back to top ]